Trapped women rescued from fire at Wolverhampton house

Two women had to be rescued from their Wolverhampton home after a fire left them trapped upstairs.

Firefighters used a ladder to get them down after a kitchen pan caught fire and caused heavy smoke logging at the address in Gordon Place, Bilston.

Two people in the house, a 19 year-old and another woman believed to be in her 40s, were alerted by a smoke alarm but were upstairs as smoke started to fill the property.

Firefighters helped put the ladder to the window to get them down from the upstairs bedroom while four crew membes in breathing apparatus put out the blaze at around 7pm last night.

Crew commander Shaun Dakin, of Wolverhampton fire station, said a smoke alarm had alerted the women who then called fire control who advised them what to do. They were checked over by paramedics as a precaution.

He said: "We managed to get them down the ladder. The house was 100 per cent smoke damaged throughout. They couldn't get out the house as it was billowing with smoke."

The fire damage was contained to the kitchen but Mr Dakin warned about the dangers of food being left cooking unattended.

Meanwhile, three crews were called to a house in Woden Road, Heath Town, to attend to a fire which completely gutted a third-floor loft conversion.

It is thought smouldering material had caught alight in the roof of the house at around 9.40pm, after being accidentally left behind by a man doing DIY work with a blow torch earlier in the day.

The property was empty at the time of the fire.

Watch commander Tony Jackson, of Fallings Park fire station, said his crew was alerted by neighbours who saw smoke coming from the roof of the house. The fire took three hours to fully extinguish.

"The upper floor was completely destroyed, so it is a good thing no one was in the house when the fire started," he said.

"We think the fire was started accidentally. It looks like the remnants of a home improvement job from earlier in the day had caught fire and took hold."

Firefighters were also called to a semi-detached house in Pelsall after a cooker caught fire at around 12.10pm yesterday.

A smoke alarm alerted the woman occupier and her two year-old child who were able to get out of the address in Allens Lane. It caused some smoke logging and they received a precautionary check-up.